NORWAY – Changes in Maine life and work as a result of the Industrial Revolution will be the topic of a reading and discussion series at the Norway Library.

The library will open the eight-week “Let’s Talk About It” series on Feb. 5 by presenting “Modern Times in Main & America, 1890-1930.”

Library Director Ann Siekman said this was one of about 50 “Let’s Talk About It” series programs created by the Maine Humanities Council.

The series will begin with a video combining early moving picture footage, rare photographs and music of the time reflecting the changes beginning at the start of the 20th Century.

Roland A. Burns, a retired UMaine English professor living in Standish, will facilitate the discussion after the film and for book discussions in the following weeks.

Four books, three having Maine implications and one written by a Maine author, will be read and discussed over the following seven weeks.

The books are: “The Jungle,” 1906, by Upton Sinclair; “Herland,” 1915, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; “Babbitt,” 1922, by Sinclair Lewis; and “As the Earth Turns,” 1931, by Gladys Hasty Carroll.

From reading “The Jungle,” parallels could be drawn between the hard lives of immigrant workers: the Italians and Poles in Chicago and the Franco-Americans in Lewiston and Millinocket.

“Herland” is a fantasy written by Maine author Gilman. It is a fantasy about the discovery of a lost feminine society.

Among the many themes in “Babbitt,” will be his desire to get to Maine so he can be “converted to serenity.”

“As the Earth Turns” is a novel about Maine farm life.

Siekman said about 15 people had already signed up for the course, which generally fields about 20 people. Books for the course are available on a loan basis.

For more information call the library at 743-5309.